Post by Category : Interesting Stuff

MetroWest Daily News:Down to Earth: Bring in the new year with old treasures

However, there is a movement afoot to be more thrifty and creative by reusing, repairing and buying secondhand items at a much-reduced cost. The technological age in some ways has made people more isolated, but when it comes to sharing or buying items, the world is small and the connections for free items are astonishing. Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) is a site where people post items they are giving away or items they need. Everything is free. There are 5,082 groups, so you can sign up for a local group for easy pick-up of items. Things to donate or take range from furniture to building materials to anything that is legal, not a weapon or pornography, etc. Several years ago, we had a bulky computer, keyboard and tower that neither our friends nor we wanted. We posted it on Freecycle and with in a day we had a mom at our doorstep thrilled to be providing her son with a full computer set-up. Craiglist (www.craigslist.org) also has incredible secondhand items for sale and some items for free.

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At each Turn: Free Cycle Poetry or The Story of Futons and Life

So, we finally got rid of the futon. It was broken, but I posted a full disclosure notice on the Charlottesville-Albemarle Freecycle list.

Futon, mission style frame wih mattress & coverAfter a few email exchanges and phone calls to arrange pick up between snow showers, a woman and her dad borrowed a truck to come get the futon; let’s call them Helen and James.

We showed Helen and James where the futon frame needs repair.

“I’m a carpenter by trade. This will be no problem,” said James.

Rick had already told me the frame could be repaired for under $10, so any guilt I had about passing on broken stuff, even for free, was really evaporating.

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Arizona Daily Star: Bring some, take some, for free

Bring some, take some, for free
Tucson-based group sponsoring ‘no strings attached’ meet-ups

The guests have gone, the holiday hullabaloo hushed.

What’s left: stuff. Ribbons. Wrapping paper. And an assortment of misguided gifts and other unwanted items that promise to take up space for the next year, if not forever.

Rather than throw these things away, wouldn’t it be great to give them to someone who could love them – and even get something you truly want in return?

Freecycle.org, founded by Deron Beal on May 1, 2003, enables exactly that.

Beal created the website so that locals could sign up on a list server to unload items or request things they want to find.

Beal says the website he founded in Tucson now serves communities in more than 110 countries, and he expects to reach 10 million participants worldwide this year.

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Las Cruces Sun-News: Keeping glass out of the landfill

Freecycle Network is a nonprofit organization started in 2003 in Arizona. Since then, Freecycling has spread to cities all over the U.S., and to 85 countries around the world.

Millions of members have joined since its inception almost 10 years ago, and together they keep 500 tons of perfectly good items out of the landfill every day, according to www.freecycle.org.

Freecycle Network is considered a worldwide “gifting” movement that benefits communities while saving valuable resources. It is not a trading community and no money is ever accepted. The goal is for members to “give” the items they don’t want, without any strings attached or compensation. In Las Cruces, Carrie Hamblen, executive director of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce, has been an active member for more than two years, and avidly encourages Las Cruces residents to join.

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Post Tribune: Food For Families

Four years ago, Mandy Moore of Chesterton saw someone was giving away a turkey on the Freecycle website.

Out of curiosity, she contacted the giver and discovered 50 people wanted the holiday staple. Sensing an unfilled need in her community, Moore put together seven meals and put that up on Freecycle.

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Harbor Light: Give the gift of reading

Give the gift of reading this holiday season, by donating gently used books to Great Start’s Freecycle Book Bins. The project, which allows families to take home free books from community locations, has been so successful that the need for additional books continues to grow.

Leadership Little Traverse’s class of 2013 took on the Freecycle Book Bins, started by the Great Start Collaborative and Great Start Parent Coalition, as its service learning project. The group is currently seeking used or new books, ranging from infant board books to chapter books. Drop off locations include the Harbor Springs Library, Harbor Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, Big Apple Bagels, Petoskey Library, and Petoskey Area Chamber of Commerce by December 21.

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CT on a budget: LOVE Freecycle!

I needed another table in order to be able to seat all that are coming to a Christmas party that I am hosting. I looked on line, these go for $50 for the cheapo, plastic topped ones to more like $100 and up for study, industrial ones. Today, I had college boy with his truck pick up and deliver a Freecyled 6 foot, folding party table. While there are a few scratches in the top, wood grain finish, this is an all steel table that will more than suit my needs, especially as I plan on covering it with a table cloth! Very, very happy to now own this, my cost? just a tip to college boy to help cover his gas. Well worth it!

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Adventure in Croatia: Some things in life are free – Freecycle

I’ve already done a post about Freecycle a few month back, but I thought I would remind all my blogging buddies about this fantastic website and community, where you can give away items for free, and find items for free.

It is so satisfying to give things away, rather than knowing they will go to landfill site or an incinerator. And don’t think that the item you are giving away should be in perfect condition, I’ve given away items which were broken, and there is always somebody out there who can take it and fix it!

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GETMEADOGGYBAG: Freecycle

If you aren’t using freecycle, you’re not living. Freecycle is a website where you can get, and give away, useful items, for free. You can get some amazing things from there, and you can get rid of a lot of stuff that you may think is crap. The basic philosophy behind freecycle is finding a use for things that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

How does it work? Visit http://www.freecycle.org/group/nz/. Register. Check the listings. Sign up to receive the emails. If you have something to give away, make a post, if you have something you want, make a post. There are a lot of generous people out there and if you let people know you need something, you will be surprised how many people are willing to help.

I have tried to give something away on freecycle each time I have picked something up. To keep the balance right, if you will. Here are some examples of how freecycle has worked for me:

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Harvard Crimson: FreeCycle Encourages Reuse

Hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and other members of the Cambridge community flocked to the Science Center on Friday to drop off their unwanted items in exchange for the latest finds at Harvard’s FreeCycle.

The free give-and-take event, hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Green Program and the Facilities Maintenance Operations Recycling & Solid Waste Removal group, is held every three to four months on campus.

“They’re our way of making sure that good items don’t go to the trash,” said Brandon P. Geller, senior coordinator of the FAS Green Program.

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